#Deborah Yeboah# played in arguably her best game of the season with 16 first-half points, finishing with a game-high 24, as the University of Victoria Vikes women's basketball team lost 83-73 to the host Regina Cougars in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Western Regional semifinal at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health and Sport at the University of Regina.

BOX SCORE

Danielle Schmidt had a career-high 23 points, going five-for-five from beyond the arc to lead the Cougars. Regina teammate Joanna Zalesiak  added 20 points, nine assists and 17 rebounds in the win.

#Sarah Semeniuk# notched 18 points and pulled in 15 rebounds for UVic, while #Carmen Lapthorne# was impressive with 11 points and nine rebounds.

It's UVic's third straight playoff loss to Regina this season after falling in two straight games to the Lady Cougars in the best-of-three Canada West quarter-final series at the end of February. The Vikes had advanced to the Western Regional tournament by winning an at-large berth, selected on Sunday March 6 by a group of CIS women's basketball coaches.

With the win, the Cougars advance to the Western Regional final on March 12 against the winner of the other Western Regional semifinal between Wilfird Laurier and the Universite de Quebec a Montreal. Meanwhile, UVic is eliminated from the Western Regional tournament and can only qualify for the CIS national championship Final 8 tournament in Windsor, Ont., as a wild-card team. That selection will be made on Sunday March 13.

Yeboah, a junior from Winnipeg, opened the scoring with four of the Vikes first six points and was an inspirational leader on the floor for the Vikes which trailed just once in the opening half and led by as much as 13 points.

Regina led just once in the opening half, and Yeboah responded quickly to put UVic back up with back-to-back baskets aided by a steal. She scored 10 of UVic's first-quarter points to take a 18-11 lead into the second quarter and drained her 16th point to give Vikes 30-20 lead followed by a Cassandra Goodis three-pointer to put UVic up 33-20.

Schmidt kept Regina close with long-range shooting, fuelling the Cougars on a 9-0 run late in the opening half to keep it close.

The Vikes led 36-32 at the half.

Foul trouble and hot-shooting from Regina turned the tides in the second half. as the Cougars outscored the Vikes 51-37 in the final 20 minutes.

Schmidt hit another trey to cut the lead to two points early in the third quarter and then a rare Vanessa Wesolowski three-pointer gave the Cougars their second lead of the game after a run of great defence at 42-40.

Regina led 57-54 entering the final quarter. Their defence changed gears, holding Yeboah scoreless in the final 10 minutes.

UVic cut the lead to three points with just under seven minutes remaining in the fourth left before the Vikes lost two players in just over a minute. #Vanessa Forstbauer#, a graduating senior, fouled out with about six minutes remaining with seven points and five rebounds. A minute later fellow fifth-year senior #Jane Anholt# fouled out.

Regina quickly restored a double-digit lead. Schmidt hit a long-range two-pointer to stretch the lead to 10 points for the Cougars, deflating the VIkes for the duration of the game. Regina led by as much as 14 and keeps their hopes of making the CIS Final 8 alive.

Scoring by Quarter
UVic    18    18    18    19 - 73
Regina    11    21    25    26 - 83

Scoring by Half
UVic        36    37 - 73
Regina    32    51 - 83

Top Scorers
UVic - Debbie Yeboah, 24 points, five steals, three assists, four rebounds
Regina - Danielle Schmidt, 23 points, 4 steals